Human Trafficking: Police looking for int’l gang members

Police in Bangladesh are looking for the suspected members of an international gang which has been trafficking young women to India and and forcing them to become sex workers.

The women they target are mostly the users of video-sharing app TikTok.

In the last two days, the capital's Hatirjheel police took three India-returnee victims in custody and detained four boys, sources said.

But police have yet to officially acknowledge that the victims and the suspects were in custody.

Police officers are taking along the victims while raiding different places, an official said, adding that they are also interrogating the people close to Ridoy Babo, the prime accused in a human trafficking case filed with Hatirjheel Police Station.

Talking to this correspondent in front of Hatirjheel Police Station around 1:30pm yesterday, the mother of a detained boy said she went there to give lunch to her son. She added that her son is 17 and he used to make TikTok videos with Ridoy.

Police picked him up on Friday around 4:00pm, she said, adding that the family has yet been able to talk to him. She sent some food for him with the help of a policeman.

Family members of the two victims, aged 15 and 25, were also not being allowed to meet them.

A man said Ridoy tricked his 15-year-old sister-in-law and four other young women to go to Bengaluru, India, through Satkhira three months ago. The victims were tortured and forced into sex work.

The victims were able to flee and return to Bangladesh recently, he said, adding that members of a law enforcement agency picked up the girl from her home in Hatirjheel area on Thursday night. They interrogated her and released her the next day.

On Friday night, Hatirjheel police took her into custody, he added.

Contacted, Md Shahidullah, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (Tejgaon division), refused to make comments while the investigation was going on.

After the video clip of a young woman being tortured and sexually assaulted went viral on social media, Indian police on Thursday arrested Ridoy and five other Bangladeshis in Bengaluru.

Bangladesh police then began an investigation and found evidence that an international racket with members in Bangladesh has been trafficking young women to India.

On Saturday, the Tejgaon DC said that some criminals from the south-western region of Bangladesh and several Indian states are involved with the gang that has its network in Dubai, the UAE and several other countries in the Middle East.

Of the suspects, Alamin, 24, is from Chanchra Madhyapara area in ​​Jessore, and Tania, 22, is from Abhaynagar in the same district, family members said.

Alamin's father said people from different places used to visit Alamin and they used to take yaba in the house. About eight months ago, Alamin was driven out of the house by his parents.

Locals identified Alamin and Tania from the video. They said Alamin took Tania to India saying that she was his wife.